Notes from Sunday, September 27, 2009

Attendance at our Love and Logic Parenting classes is lower than we had anticipated, but those who attended indicated that the classes were very good. Stephanie will check with the participants to ensure that each individual/couple is/are able to afford the $15 book.

The buy-a-baritone project is going well; in fact, with donations from the tamale sale at the high school and further contributions from members of the SUMC congregation, we have surpassed the $1,000 mark. Trena reported that Norma has been depositing these funds into our account, so Rachel will have to take care of writing the check when the first bill comes due. At this point, we plan to write that first check for the total amount donated up to that point so that we can avoid interest charges.

Plans for the large-item auction continue to be made. Brent (and Stephanie) continue to work on securing an auctioneer for the Oct. 24th event. Here is a list of items that have been donated thus far:

antique library table
36" console TV
maple end table
Dell laptop
microwave
non-motorized treadmill
2000 Ford Windstar.

Ryan will touch base with Jim Shearman concerning the items he has offered to donate. He and Pat are back from the tour of Italy.

Don't forget! We also plan to sell Leanne's chocolate chip cookie sandwiches at Harvestfest. Leanne has suggested that we meet at the shop on Oct. 2o for a baking party. We'll need to nail down the specifics as that time comes.

Rachel was not in class due to having two grandparents in the hospital. She will keep us updated on the Christmas angel project and the DISCO dinner, and we will keep her and her family in our prayers.

Finally, in preparation for the UMW general conference, which is to be held at our church, we've finally cleaned up our Sunday school classroom room. Note to self: the Easter eggs are in the shed. We still have a bit of work to do, particularly in the MAM room.

So here's the plan: Tuesday (Sept. 29) we will meet at 5:00 to clear the rubble. Julie Smith has offered to lend hand, we've invited Kelvin and Donna, and we could use your help, too! This meeting will be followed up by a Wednesday (Sept. 30) grocery run (meet at the store at 4:00) to re-stock the food pantry with non-perishable items. Again, we could use all the help we can get!

Notes from Sunday, September 13, 2009

The large item auction/van fundraiser is well underway.

• Karen will continue to announce at church that we are looking for donations of large items and, will, perhaps run a community note in the paper.
  
• Ryan will coordinate our efforts with Jim Shearman.
• Brent will finalize our plans for the location and get us an auctioneer.
  
• Jennifer will take care of a sale bill and contact the paper about the cost of advertising the event.
  

In conjunction with the large-item auction, Leanne will debut her Cookies for Cause (or whatever name she develops), selling chocolate chip sandwich cookies at $2.00 each/six for $10 with proceeds going to fund our work . . . probably the baritone. Leanne has suggested a baking party on Oct. 2o. More details to follow.

As of today (9/15) we have received about $600 for the baritone we purchased for our needy 8th grader. Juanita Lau is organizing a tamale sale ($18 per dozen) with proceeds to go to the project. Order by the end of this week by emailing Juanita at jlau@usd507.org or calling the high school at 649-2611. Delivery will be sometime next week--Wednesday or Thursday depending on how large the order is.

Stacey and Stephanie are confident that we have enough parents interested in our parenting classes to make them work. They will take care of the first meeting (Sunday, the 20th) and let the rest of us know what is needed: childcare, translators, snacks, etc. Each participant/couple will be asked to pay $10 to cover the cost of the book, but we will pay for those who could not otherwise afford to attend.

Stephanie is also working on Russell Child Development's annual Christmas fundraiser, and we opted to donate $100 toward the cause as a thank you for the projects we have accomplished via Smart Start.

Stephanie and Mendy also reported that we had between 45 and 50 kids at Faithweaver Friends on Wednesday, so volunteers and MORE FOOD are needed to make that project a continued success.

Rachel then reported that she would like to get our annual angel tree project underway before she has to have surgery. Rachel reminded us that we discussed some changes after Christmas last year that we should adopt for this year's go-round: provide a size chart and a list of toys appropriate for specific age groups; purchase extra toys for toddlers that we may not know about when Santa arrives, etc. Rachel will report to us on specifics of this project over the next few Sundays.

Rachel also reported that she and Matt are feeding the youth group at their house on October 14 should the class wish to join in; everyone agreed that a meal from Sam's consisting of lasagna, garlic bread, and corn--with pudding for dessert--would be appropriate. Rachel will sort out who is donating what when we have time to discuss the details.

Finally, the all-church clean-up day is Oct. 3, and some of us should probably volunteer to be on hand to clean our Sunday school room up and organize MAM once more. Ryan plans to be there and has recruited Julie Smith to help.

There's always lots to do, but it certainly feels good doing it!

Notes from Sunday, September 6

It is official: the large-item auction is set for October 24, 2009 and will be held in conjunction with Harvestfest. The start time will be 10:00 a.m., and we will NOT plan on providing breakfast or lunch as food items will be available at the community building.

In order for this to happen, a few things will need to be done:

1. Brent will need to contact Chuck Lozar about the possibility of using his parking lot as a location and will contact/find an auctioneer.

2. Ryan will contact Jim Shearman about the items he will be donating and will inform him of the date change. Jim has also volunteered to help us round up items around town.

3. Karen will take care of creating a PowerPoint slide for church asking for donations.

4. Jennifer will take care of the sale bill and will contact Rolf at the paper to see what we can do as far as placing the sale bill in the paper as an ad or an insert.

5. Leanne will be in charge of directing a chocolate-chip cookie sandwich sale at Harvestfest. More details to follow.

We also discussed a few other projects that we are involved in.

We are now the proud owners of a $1500 baritone, which was purchased to keep a needy 7th grader in band. This means that we'll need to come up with $60 a month for the next two and half years. In order to make this happen, Rachel has cancelled our $38.00 a month commitment to sponsor a child overseas, and we may have to begin other fundraising efforts as well.

Ryan suggested that we could sell baked goods in the narthex in much the same way Kelvin sells his garden produce to raise funds for the food pantry. Leanne's sandwich cookies could be sold with the same project in mind. "Cookies for change" seems to fit somehow. We also received pledges from two members of our congregation that will cover three months of instrument payments, and the feeling is that there is more to come.

A similar project we are engaged in involves making sure the freshmen homecoming attendant has the items she'll need for the coronation ceremony. Nicole has offered shoes, and Mendy will cover the jewelry. Karen will touch base with the young woman and see what help she needs.

In other news, Ryan and Jennifer will shop for groceries for the food pantry on Labor Day, and Rachel has signed up to feed the youth on Wednesday, October 14. If our class would like to pitch and help, we could make this a group project. Stephanie and Stacey are moving forward on the Love and Logic parenting classes, which begin on September 20.

See you all next Sunday!